Tomorrow, most SPL branches will begin a new reduced schedule. The press release is below and after the jump:

Many branches of The Seattle Public Library will operate on a reduced schedule beginning Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010.
The reduction in operating hours was part of a $1.7 million cut to the Library’s 2010 budget to help address a city revenue shortfall.
Under the new schedule, hours for the 15 branches listed below will be: 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; closed Friday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; and closed Sunday.

The 15 branches are after the jump, along with the diminished hours of the other 11 branches.

Tank Books is releasing a set of short stories and novellas in flip-top cigarette packs.

Each story is complete and unabridged — with a type size that’s easy to read. Individual books are great for throwing into a pocket or handbag — an instantly familiar object to carry with you. The complete set comes in a stunning tin — perfect as a really original gift.

Authors include Kafka, Hemingway, Stevenson, and Conrad. (What, no Virginia Slim-sized box of Virginia Woolf? I would have thought that would be a no-brainer.) The thing I find most impressive about these books—besides the immensely portable size—is the design of the packages. I know they're just plays on cigarette packaging, but they're striking, clear, and direct. Publishers are going to have to start thinking of design like this—in the packaging and in the design of the books—if they want books as objects to continue to have any appeal.

If you're interested in what Allen Ginsberg wrote in his journal, while in Seattle, on this date in 1956, it's after the jump.

More Super Bowl musings later tonight.

Jeffrey Siger is reading from his book Assassins in Athens at Seattle Mystery Bookshop today at noon. Siger is a former lawyer, and is a thriller written by a former lawyer has never been done before in the history of literature, so you'll want to show up and show your support for this brave pioneer.

Castalia rolls around again at the Richard Hugo House. This is the UW creative writing program reading series. Students will read, and so will UW alumna Rebecca Hoogs, who is a very fine poet. We ran one of her poems in the Poetry Chain a while back.

And Elliott Bay Book Company hosts Mary Jo Bang tonight. The Bride of E is a collection of poetry by an author who made the New York Times Notable Book list a couple years back with her previous book. If you would like to read something by Ms. Bang, I suggest starting with this poem from The New Yorker; it's a lovely, slightly challenging but ultimately very rewarding poem.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

The author of the Company series of sci-fi novels, as well as many other award-winning sci-fi short stories, died last night at 57.

But because Macmillan is one of the six biggest publishers in America, and because Amazon can feel the iPad breathing down their necks, Amazon caved:

Amazon did not return repeated requests for comment last weekend, but on Sunday released a statement that it would "have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms" for higher-priced e-books under the agency model, because, Amazon said, "Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books."

Amazon accusing someone else of having a monopoly is pretty hilarious, and the passive-aggressive backhand at the end of that paragraph sure isn't pretty. Will other publishers start to protest Amazon's pricing for the Kindle now, too? If I had to guess, I'd say the odds are pretty good.

And Rebecca Stead reads at the University Village Barnes & Noble tonight. When You Reach Me is a young adult novel set in Manhattan in the long-ago year of 1978. The protagonist of the book meets someone who may or may not be from the future.

This is the very definition of a slow Monday.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

Elliott Bay Book Company is hosting a discussion with ballet people about PNB's current show, Sleeping Beauty. And then at Seattle Public Library, Lorraine McConaghy gives an "illustrated presentation," which I believe is clumsy-speak for "a slideshow,"about the book Warship Under Sail.

If you're into ballerinas, you'll probably want to go to the former. If you're into warships, you'd probably prefer the latter. Just sayin'.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

But first, let's talk about the non-comics related readings. John Bowe reads at Elliott Bay Book Company tonight. As I said yesterday, US: Americans Talk About Love is a thick book of interviews with average Americans about their great love affairs. It's a sweet, funny, fascinating book. Earlier in the day at Elliott Bay, Jacob Needleman, a scholar and philosopher, asks What Is God? I hope we can finally get to the bottom of this issue today.

Megan Chance reads at Seattle Mystery Bookshop. Prima Donna is a historical thriller about a diva. As in, "an opera diva." Not "a sassy lady," which is what the word seems to mean today.

But as I said at the top, today is really all about comics. Seattle Public Library is hosting a "Comix Workshop with David Lasky and Greg Stump." Brilliant local cartoonists David Lasky and Greg Stump co-teach an all-ages comics workshop. (Note: Both Lasky and Stump do work for The Stranger.) This is part of SPL's Comixtravaganza finale.

And also part of Comixtravaganza is Peter Bagge's appearance at the Central Branch at 3 pm today. Bagge, inventor of Hate and cartoon legend, will discuss his work. And then at the Fantagraphics Store in Georgetown, it's time for NEWAVE!, which is a celebration of the minicomics of the 1980s. Cartoonists like Jaimie Alder, Jim Blanchard, Wayne Gibson, David Lasky (him again!), Wayno, J.R. Williams, Steve Willis, Dennis Worden, and XNO will be in attendance. This one is the reading of the night for sure.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

Kyle Regan—a masochistic Stranger reader—has vowed to do every single thing recommended by the Stranger Suggests (movies, galleries, bars, concerts) for the month of January. Look for his reports daily on Slog. —Eds.

The Richard Hugo House was packed. I was a little late, which forced me to wait outside the at-capacity building. Eventually a couple left, allowing me legal entrance. It was a weird crowd. One part hipster PBR-drinking scarfers and one part wine-sipping literary fans.

I missed a good half of Rory Douglas’s reading, and what I did hear was muffled by walls and hallways. I wasn’t exactly in prime seating. I was able to make out more of Midge Raymond’s piece, but I never got a chance to actually see her; the crowds and walls blocked everything. I don’t actually know what Douglas or Raymond look like, having never been able to see them. Raymond’s story of a stagnant friendship was my favorite of the night.

Matthew Simmons (by now I had good seating and could see the bearded author) told the story of the man who loves caves. And by caves I don’t mean vaginas (which was the image that I couldn’t get out of my head during his entire piece). Finally, Maria Semple, former Arrested Development writer, read from her book This One is Mine. I love hating rich assholes as much as the next jealous, low-income person. But Semple makes them so laughably aloof that you can’t help but feel for them.

I really liked the flavor of the place. Everyone I talked to was either nice, an author, drunk or some combination of the three. Unlike the previous two books events I’ve gone to, this felt like the actual literature was the focus of the night. The books were for sale, but we weren’t reminded of it every 10 fucking minutes. In the name of transparency, they tried to bribe me with a t-shirt. Even a free shirt couldn’t keep me around for the open mic. As much as I wanted to hear teenagers bitch about being teenagers, I declined.

In this big dramatic production that didn't do anyone any good (and was pretty embarrassing, really, if you think about it), thousands upon thousands of phonies across the country mourned the death of author J.D. Salinger, who was 91 years old for crying out loud. "He had a real impact on the literary world and on millions of readers," said hot-shot English professor David Clarke, who is just like the rest of them, and even works at one of those crumby schools that rich people send their kids to so they don't have to look at them for four years. "There will never be another voice like his." Which is exactly the lousy kind of goddamn thing that people say, because really it could mean lots of things, or nothing at all even, and it's just a perfect example of why you should never tell anybody anything.

Along those lines, if you're looking for a bunch of eulogies about J.D. Salinger by people who may or may not be (but probably are) phonies, Arts & Letters Daily has links to 30 of them. And Matthew Simmons shares the most egregious Salinger eulogy of all: A tasteless Twitter post by Bret Easton Ellis that must be read to be believed. Seriously: If you're Bret Easton Ellis, you don't get to throw stones at any other authors, because you're Bret Easton Ellis.

Elliott Bay Book Company hosts Mike O'Connor. Unnecessary Talking is a collection of autobiographical sketches by the poet and translator of Chinese literature. If you're into autobiography and you're Christian, the editor of Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical reads with a few other authors at Seattle Pacific University.

There are two issue-based readings tonight. At Town Hall, there's a lecture titled "Working with Violent Youth," in which Dr. Stuart Twemlow talks about the "psychological and physical impact of violence." At New Freeway Hall, Kamran Sharifi, an "Iranian social justice activist," and Monica Hill, who is a "feminist journalist," will discuss current Iranian events with Hill,

But the reading of the night is at Miro Tea in Ballard. John Bowe has edited a Studs Terkel-like book of interviews about love. It's titled Us: Americans Talk about Love. I've read this book, and it's really charming. The interviews are arranged by how long the couples have been together, so if you want to read an interview with a cute older couple, for instance, you flip to the back. If you've had a bad week, this reading could make it better.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

It is no good assuming that bookstores will simply survive because they ought. We have to do what we can to see that they do, as booksellers with not only an economic interest in books, but a sense of mission, for want of a better word, when it comes to selling books.
...
Think of it: all the books that Helene Hanff had to write to 84 Charing Cross Road in the sometimes vain hope of her booksellers finding affordable copies for her, can now be reprinted in minutes! I know, because the list of titles from Hanff's memoir was the first list of titles I checked for availability, and yes, they can all be had through the EBM!

Incidentally: If you love books and you haven't read 84, Charing Cross Road, you should fix that as soon as possible.

There'll be a Suggests box for this one popping up in a moment or two, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but tonight is Cheap Beer and Prose at the Hugo House. The popular reading night continues, with very funny readers—Maria Semple, Matthew Simmons, Midge Raymond, and Rory Douglas—and $1 glasses of PBR.

Jennie Shortridge is at Elliott Bay Book Company. When She Flew is a novel about an injured veteran, an injured veteran's daughter, and a cop who might be in over her head emotionally.

At the Ballard branch of SPL, Professor David Bachman from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington will discuss our shaky hate-marriage with China and our ever-forgiving love-marriage with China's fat wallet.

Kathy Griffin will be appearing at University Book Store tonight. This is a signing for Ms. Griffin's new book Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin. The press release reads, "Kathy is happy to sign your book. Kathy will not personalize." So much for the D List, I guess.

And Open Books is hosting what should be a pretty amazing reading. Olena Kalytiak Davis is the Alaskan author of the chapbook "On the Kitchen Table from Which Everything Has Been Hastily Removed." I am sorry to say that I have not read Davis's book of poetry, but Davis is reading with Kary Wayson. Wayson is the awesome author of American Husband, which is probably tied with Ed Skoog's Mister Skylight for Best Book of Poetry Produced by a Seattlite Last Year. This reading or Cheap Beer & Prose should be vying for your attention tonight.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

The historian and author of A People's History of the United States is dead at 87.

Between Auchincloss and Zinn, this is a very sad day for books. We're losing our elder statesmen. If you haven't read People's History, you really, really, really should.

The long and the short of it: Unless Amazon has a dramatic new device waiting in the wings, I think the Kindle is basically done. I've talked with some Kindle owners who appreciate the fact that it's a device that doesn't come with all the bells and whistles of a full internet connection. And some people think that e-ink is the most important thing to ever hit electronic reading. But those people are a very small minority. I think the Kindle, and all those e-readers that debuted at CES earlier this month, are going to be fighting over the tiniest portion of the market. And tech devices that are aimed at tiny portions of markets don't tend to survive.

If the iPad does make it as a mass-market companion device—and I suspect that it will, even though I'm honestly a little disappointed at the lack of innovation in this device—the iBookstore* could dominate the ebook market, especially since Apple seems to have the major publishers in their corner. And since the publishers are making more money off individual iBook sales than they ever will make off physical book sales, I think they're going to be promoting iBooks and the iPad as eagerly as Apple will be promoting them.

But this is a pivotal point for magazine and newspaper publishers, and we didn't get much of a sense about that today at the Keynote. If someone doesn't figure out an easy, universal way to get media subscribers in the App market, what's left of the mainstream media will continue its speedy decay. People are willing to pay for apps in a way that they're not willing to pay for websites. Magazines and newspapers need to exploit that, and they need to provide essential, beautiful, well-written content to do that.

One medium that didn't get any mention at all at today's keynote was comic books as periodicals. Like Rich Johnston said earlier today at Bleeding Cool, if someone can come up with an app that can deliver new mainstream comics (DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse) to the iPad, they will make so much money. Guaranteed. (Actually, what Johnston says is "Right now there are comic shops in every major city in the English speaking world. That will change." It's sad, but I agree with him there, too.)

Everyone was asking before this event: Can Apple save publishing? The answer, basically, is Apple is giving print media a platform to save themselves. Let's hope print media doesn't fuck it up the way they royally fucked up the internet.

* Personally, I wish the iBookstore didn't have so much cheesy animation in its interface. Why do the books have to be sitting, faced out, on a faux-wooden shelf in the frame? Is it supposed to be old-timey or something? The iTunes store doesn't dispay the album art like record sleeves sitting in some junk bin in a record shop. And, anyway, if Apple wanted it to be a bookshelf, why aren't the books displayed spine-out? It seems weirdly ill-conceived for an Apple interface to me.

I've only read a couple of Auchincloss's novels. The best one was The Scarlet Letters, a reimagining of Hawthorne's novel. It was a very old-fashioned, thoughtful novel: Ornate, beautiful writing about adults, responsibility, and heartbreak.

In the years since I read Letters, I've bought a bunch of Auchincloss's novels when I come across them in used bookstores for future reading. If you like Wharton or Austen, you might want to give him a try.